{"id":462,"date":"2005-05-02T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2005-05-02T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jcm.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/05\/02\/general-election-blog-roundup-21\/"},"modified":"2005-05-02T00:01:00","modified_gmt":"2005-05-02T00:01:00","slug":"general-election-blog-roundup-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/05\/general-election-blog-roundup-21\/","title":{"rendered":"General election blog roundup 21"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of yours truly, up now at the General Election Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Note to self: don’t write these things while half asleep, partially drunk and nursing a headache in future… Still, as I done it and stuff, I reckon reproducing it here is just about fine. Here you are then:<\/p>\n

It’s a Bank Holiday<\/a>, my head hurts from booze and Tony Blair is having to pretend that yet MORE Iraq-based leaks mean nothing. “But what of British bloggers?” I hear you cry. “What of all these weirdly-named loners, sat inside on such a lovely day, spewing forth invective and insight?”<\/p>\n

Well, because of all this Iraq business, let’s kick off with the not really weirdly-named Phil at Actually Existing (who may or may not be a loner, I have no idea), with a fairly detailed analysis of the legality of the war<\/a>, following a particularly patronising load of guff from the Guardian<\/a>, while The Obscurer<\/a> had a good one up a couple of days ago, and smhwpf also has a nice, lengthy take on why this Iraq thing is so damn important to some of us<\/a>. (Phil’s piece slagging off everyone’s least favourite hack<\/a>, erstwhile Harry’s Place<\/a> blogger Johann Hari, is also worth a look).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Martin Stabe has an overview of the latest leaks<\/a> – as well as an amusing bit on just how damn stupid<\/a> certain people are being when it comes to revealing information about the Iraq war. The Curious Hamster provides another handy overview<\/a>, but that Harry’s Place lot, Labour loyalists to the last, can’t see what all the fuss is about<\/a>, and neither can Gauche<\/a>. (Hint: it’s because Blair spouted bollocks, guys…) Oh, and John B of Shot by Both Sides has a nice summary of some of the patronising Labourite nonsense over that whole Ricin business<\/a> which is also worth a look.<\/p>\n

Oh, and while we’re Harry’s Place bashing (OK, while I’m Harry’s Place bashing – that’s what you get for not linking to my site for over six months – ha!), the brilliantly-named (and rather amusing) Chase Me Ladies I’m in the Cavalry has a take on that whole “the Respect party are a bunch of violent thugs”<\/a> thing that was doing the rounds a couple of days ago. Dave Wheeden, meanwhile, makes the somewhat pertinent point that – erm – individuals cannot be taken as representative of a party as a whole<\/a>. Let’s face it, if every member of the Labour party was like Glenda Jackson, the world would be a much nicer place…<\/p>\n

If you’re pissed off by all this, there’s another handy look at the potential (lots) and pitfalls (not many) of anti-Labour tactical voting over at Consider Phlebas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But, of course, tactical voting requires actual voting. Samizdata attempts to fight the apathy to analyse the decline in turnout<\/a> over the years, while Left Out Liberal looks at the student vote<\/a> – or lack thereof… But one student who does look interested is good old DoctorVee, who’s provided a handy roundup of election pamphlets<\/a> from his constituency. I got one today from the bonkers “Vote for Yourself Rainbow Dream Ticket” bloke… Election leaflets are funny. Stephen Pollard, however, isn’t so happy about the things<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And talking of people who aren’t happy, Sinn Fein’s manifesto gets a nice going over<\/a> at Slugger O’Toole, where they also seem to have found one of the more attractive candidates in these elections<\/a> in the Green party’s Kelly Andrews…<\/p>\n

Ho-hum. There’s only a few days to go and the forecasts are looking good<\/a>, so Guido has started pondering what happens afterwards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That not enough for you? Then head over to Tim Worstall’s place for his latest BritBlog Roundup<\/a>. Good stuff as always.<\/p>\n

And keep sending the links in to the usual generalelection@gmail.com address. I’m also trying to find out who else, like me, is planning to liveblog the election – so get in touch if you are. Not that I imagine it’ll be much fun, but still…<\/p>\n

And now for a witty final remark to make myself look clever and great and stuff. Erm…<\/p>\n

Tony Blair stinks of wee! Hahahahahahaha!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy of yours truly, up now at the General Election Blog. Note to self: don’t write these things while half asleep, partially drunk and nursing a headache in future… Still, as I done it and stuff, I reckon reproducing it … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jcm.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}